ii. Its Meaning to us.
1. In the narrative of the Baptism, as has often been observed, we have the participation of the three Persons of the Trinity. There flows from it therefore a threefold blessing to men.
(1) Divine reconciliation is assured to us in this manifestation of the Son of God. To the personal " Jesus " is now to be added the title of the Christ — the Messiah, the Anointed One. In the inn at Bethlehem, in the workshop at Nazareth, we see Jesus. In this baptism at Jordan, in His ministry in Galilee and Judaea, we behold the Christ. In His Person He assures us of reconcilia- tion between God and man. Without Him sin would for ever bar our admission into the presence of the Most High. But He is the Kighteous One, who not only has done no sin, but has fulfilled all righteousness.
(2) Divine renewal is assured to us in the manifestation of the Spirit of God. Thus did the Father anoint the Sou with the Holy Ghost and with power (Acts x. 38) ; and though the sight of this
» B. W. Barbour, Thoughts, 52.
ST. LUKE III. 21, 22 159
heavenly effluence in dove-like form appears to have been seen only by Christ Himself and the Baptist, yet the witness is for us. The very emblem of the dove is full of teaching as to the character of the Christian renewal. We sing to the Holy Spirit :
Come as the dove, and spread Thy wings, The wings of peace and love.
But this emblem is never used in Scripture except in connexion with the Son of God. It is only in Him that the Spirit of Holiness can dwell with sinners. Yet even so the dove tells us of the perfect purity in Christ for us ; and likewise the effects of this bestowal of the Spirit upon Jesus reveal the same truth. By that Spirit He wrought His miracles and spoke His words of grace, and after His resurrection that Spirit was sent in His name, bringing to the world life and power and holiness. Sin is, so to speak, the hiatus of human nature, and the Spirit ministers that holiness which is lacking.
(3) Lastly, Divine restoration is assured to us by the testimony of the Father: "Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased." The self-same words are repeated towards the close of our Lord's ministry, on the Mount of Transfiguration. St. Peter, writing many years afterwards, doubly assures us thereof, saying, " He received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory. This is my beloved Son, in whom I aui well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven, we heard when we were with him in the holy mount" (2 Pet. i. 17, 18). And, in addition to this testi- mony of words, we have the still more substantial testimony given by the Father to the Son when He raised Him from the dead (1 Pet. i. 21), and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places (Eph. i. 20). So we sing in the Te Deum, " When Thou hadst overcome the sharpness of Death, Thou didst open the kingdom of heaven to all believers." For the Father, to use the inspired words of the Apostle Paul, " hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ."
][ " All alone, so Heaven has willed, we die " ; but, as travellers are cheered on a solitary road when they see the footprints that they know belonged to loved and trusted ones who have trodden it before, that desolate loneliness is less lonely when we think
i6o THE BAPTISM OF JESUS
that He became dead. He will come to the shrinking single soul, as He joined Himself to the sad travellers on the road to Emmaus, and " our hearts " may burn within us even in that last hour of their beating if we can remember who has become dead and trodden the road before us.^
^ Christ is made the law of the law, the sin of sin, the death of death, that He might redeem from the curse of the law, justify me and quicken me. While He is the law, He is also liberty ; while He is sin, He is righteousness; while He is death. He is life. For in that He suffered the law to acf.use Him, sin to con- demn Him, and death to devour Him, He abolished the law. He condemned sin, He destroyed death. He justified and saved me.^
2. But there is value in the Baptism for us in this also, that He is our example.
(1) He is our example of Faith. "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them" (Mark xi. 24). The Saviour left it all with God. It was believing prayer. Was His faith disappointed ? It could not be. Heaven opened upon Him. The Holy Dove descended. The mighty deed was done. This is our pattern. Christ fulfilled the conditions, and according to His faith it was unto Him. Surely from that open heaven a voice speaks to us, " The promise is to you and to your children " : " Go and do thou likewise."